Politics

Number of items in collection: 164

Short description:Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Recordings in this collection are from the History of Parliament's Oral History project, a project run by the History of Parliament Trust (in partnership with the British Library) from 2011 onwards. The collection includes a selection of fifty of the 140 interviews conducted so far.

Initially focussing on parliamentarians, it is intended to interview as many former Members of the House of Commons as possible and some senior Members of the House of Lords. The interviews set out to provide insights into the development of political careers in the second half of the twentieth century, and to illuminate the changing patterns of parliamentary politics, in particular: the professionalization of politics; the history of the constituency surgery and the development of constituency pressures; the changes in parliamentary lobbying; the relationship with constituency parties, and with councillors and other local activists; the increase in parliamentary activity, particularly select committees, all-party groups and other activities at Westminster; the history of election campaigns.

Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective. The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.

Long description:Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.

Recordings in this collection are from the History of Parliament's Oral History project, a project run by the History of Parliament Trust (in partnership with the British Library) from 2011 onwards. The collection includes a selection of fifty of the 140 interviews conducted so far.

Initially focussing on parliamentarians, it is intended to interview as many former Members of the House of Commons as possible and some senior Members of the House of Lords. The interviews set out to provide insights into the development of political careers in the second half of the twentieth century, and to illuminate the changing patterns of parliamentary politics, in particular: the professionalization of politics; the history of the constituency surgery and the development of constituency pressures; the changes in parliamentary lobbying; the relationship with constituency parties, and with councillors and other local activists; the increase in parliamentary activity, particularly select committees, all-party groups and other activities at Westminster; the history of election campaigns.

Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective. The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.

The interviews on this site are a small selection from the many thousands held in the Oral History section of the British Library. These recordings go back over 100 years and cover many facets of life in Britain. Many interviews were gathered through National Life Stories, an externally-funded unit within the Library established in 1987 to “record first-hand experiences of as wide a cross-section of present-day society as possible”.